Not sure where else I can post this but after watching MOTD I Cannot recall another time when the Government of the day has sponsored a Premier League football team!! Does this mean the cabinet gets free tickets?

Firstly Iain I don't see why you think remembering the miners strike should be seen in such a negative fashion as if making thousands unemployed was a good thing.

The risible and strategically challenged Scargill aside, the fears transpired to be true and it may be a timely reminder to mention that the further large scale job losses under Major played a huge part in the Tories fall from office.

However the fact that a Labour website and the likes of David Boothroyd see fit to follow your take on the strike further weakens my own loyalty to Labour.

If the sacrifice of jobs and an industry is to be seen as a something to brushed under the carpet then what loyalty to Labour I had is gone.

Well, Rupert Read clearly wants to demonstrate a responsible, not to say gea soul by fighting to legalise the sex industry. Except ... it's already legal. And always has been.

There are some restrictions, as there are in all industries, but working girls (and boys) can certainly ply their trade.

It was the drugs that the murdered prostitutes were taking that were illegal. Not selling sex.

Presumably, people are aware that there is free help to get off drugs. But, do-gooders have to accept that some people's lives are disconnected and frazzled. Even if they come off drugs, they will probably continue to be prostitutes because people with this kind of dependent personality don't have the discipline to turn up for regular work - on drugs or off.

Rupert Reed, cute as he is, is a typically interfering, controlling, nannyesque, Save-The-Earth-By-Doing-As-I-Say individual and I wish him a hearty "shut up".

The troll went by the name 'Hugh Jorgan' although I somehow doubt that was his real name. The argument he put forward was to celebrate the defeat of the strike and the closure of the pits because it led to the eventual economic regeneration of the area.

By the same argument New Yorkers should celebrate on September 11th because the terrorist attack led to the eventual redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. If one first accepts that there was no economic future in deep mined coal, it would have been possible to manage the regeneration of the mining areas and the retraining of workers without having to go through the lengthy period of unemployment or the diversion of unemployed miners to disability benefits which occurred between the two.

If I was a Newcastle fan I would be ashamed to have such a bunch of losers sponsoring my club! Actually scrub that the two sets of sore losers deserve each other. Government to nationalise Newcastle United?

Take my advice, Iain. Those 300 defectors are bad news. The Tories should keep away from them ot they'll be sorry. The whole story stinks. I, of course, don't have an axe to grind because I'm equidistant between clunking fist and Camoron.

But in the interests of having a remotely decent political system, I urge you to give them all a miss.

Another perspective on the 'miner's' strike': all power to the Thatch for putting Comrade Scargill and his rimmers in their place- payback for the 3 day week and holding the admittedly awful Heath government to ransom. Now, after privitisation, the energy companies are holding the public to ransom. So, it's all right for US to get screwed by the energy providers, but NOT the government. Nice to see the usual double standards at work by our elected unrepresentatives!

There's no way that Scargill wanted a negotiated settlement and properly managed run-down of uneconomic pits. He wanted a fight for his own political purposes, which were not those of the miners - witness the division between different mining areas.

Trouble is, he picked the wrong person to fight.

The miners who allowed themselves to be led by scum like Scargill unfortunately paid a heavy price, and I for one certainly do not gloat over their downfall.

Donal Blaney tires of being called a fascist - perhaps he ought to leave the Asian bashing to someone else then. His post on the British Asian Network is an absolute disgrace and right-minded people ought to be saying so.

I left a comment on the Spectator article. With reference to the fact that the original Spectator was published in 1711, I asked whether that was when Bruce Anderson started his career. The laughs never stop :)